A pro-Trump rapper is getting a rude awakening as he now faces deportation under the nation’s strict immigration crackdown.
Cuban rapper Eliéxer Márquez Duany, known as El Funky, is now at risk of being deported from the U.S., despite once being hailed as a voice of freedom by American politicians. Márquez Duany helped create the Grammy-winning protest anthem “Patria y Vida,” a bold rebuke of Cuba’s communist regime that sparked the largest anti-government demonstrations on the island in decades.
After fleeing Cuba in 2021 and settling in Miami, he applied for permanent residency under the Cuban Adjustment Act. But earlier this month, his application was denied. He now has less than 30 days to leave or face deportation and likely imprisonment in Cuba.
“What we want is for you to leave,” a Cuban official told him at the airport. “You’re not welcome here.”
Once praised by Cuban American lawmakers like Marco Rubio and Mario Díaz-Balart, Márquez Duany now finds himself largely abandoned, even as those same officials once submitted his song lyrics into the Congressional Record. Only Rep. María Elvira Salazar has publicly come to his defense, calling him a political refugee.
Ironically, Márquez Duany remains a staunch Trump supporter.
“If I could vote, I would have voted for Trump,” he said. But as Trump reinstates hardline immigration policies, including efforts to end humanitarian parole, Márquez Duany’s future hangs in the balance.
“I’m not going to shut up,” he vows. “Going back puts my life in danger.”
